Museo Nazionale di San Matteo

The Museo Nazionale di San Matteo brings together paintings, sculpture and decorative arts in a former convent beside the Arno in Pisa. Works from the city's churches connect the collection with the religious and artistic life of medieval and Renaissance Pisa.

Why it matters

The museum places different forms of artistic production alongside one another. Painted crosses, stone sculpture, ceramics and manuscripts show a city shaped both by local workshops and by exchanges across the Mediterranean.

What to notice

Painted crucifixes by Giunta Pisano and Berlinghiero represent important strands of medieval painting. Simone Martini, Gentile da Fabriano and Masaccio's Saint Paul extend the account into later periods. Donatello's bronze reliquary bust of San Lussorio joins sculpture with the veneration of relics. Islamic ceramics include basins once used to decorate Pisan churches, while illuminated manuscripts, coins and seals broaden the collection beyond painting.

Context and history

The holdings grew through donations and transfers, including works from suppressed religious institutions. The foundation of the civic museum in 1893 preceded the formation of the national collection in the former convent of San Matteo in Soarta after the Second World War. That history connects the preservation of individual works with the creation of a museum devoted to the city's artistic heritage.